Graham shook his head. “Nope. But watch yourself around bears. They can be quite temperamental.”
I gave the Relic a murderous grin that made him freeze. “So can I.”
Chapter 8
The Franklin residence took us far out of the city. I loved driving my truck around—the windows down, wind in my hair, classic rock on the radio. It still carried the same smell as when I was a kid and brought back memories of Crush taking me to get a snow cone on a hot summer day.
When I turned onto the dirt road, Blue pivoted in her seat and looked out the back window.
Alarmed, I slowed down. “What’s up?”
“I thought I saw something.” She faced forward and took off her sunglasses. “My falcon is itching to scope out the area.”
“Why don’t you do that? I can handle this.”
“That’s not what I’m here for.” She rolled up her window and sat back with a hard jerk. “Surveillance is instinctual—I can’t see a damn thing in human form.”
“You probably just saw one of their lookouts running around.”
“I know. You’re right.” She pulled at the collar of her turtleneck. Her feather earrings were probably a strategic move to make Shifters feel more comfortable talking to her even if they weren’t the same animal. I was the interloper, so I paid close attention to Blue, hoping to glean some of that knowledge. The only way to excel at my job was to learn everything about the Breeds. What to say, what not to say, the best way to get information. Shifters were still a mystery to me, and learning that each animal type had their own customs and hang-ups made me dizzy.
When we reached a tiny cabin, I parked in front, noticing there weren’t any vehicles or people. “I must have taken a wrong turn.”
“No, this is it.”
I reached in my back pocket and pulled out the paper. “It says here that there are thirty-three people in this group. There’s no way in hell they all fit inside that matchbox cabin. Where are the cars? It looks abandoned.”
Blue set her sunglasses on the dash. “Some bears live underground or in modified caves. I’ve heard they have a really nice setup, but they don’t like strangers seeing where exactly they live.”
“So they build these tiny shacks to deal with outsiders?”
“Exactly.”
I admired the tiger lilies surrounding the cabin. When we got out, a breeze rustled the leaves in the tall trees surrounding us. Aside from that, it was eerily quiet.
“They know we’re here,” she said, cocking her head when a bird screeched.
I swatted a mosquito buzzing around my thigh. “I picked the wrong day to wear shorts.”
We approached the little shanty and knocked. When no one answered, I stepped off the rickety porch and rounded the building. I passed a pile of bones, flies buzzing all around them.
When I reached the back, cold dread washed over me.
A brown bear paced toward us, a chain locked around its neck. I backed up, almost stumbling and falling on my ass. The beast let out a weak roar before sitting on its haunches.
“That’s a female,” Blue said quietly as she eased up beside me.
“How can you tell?”
“Intuition. She’s weak. I don’t like the looks of this.”
“Why is she chained up?”
Blue scanned the woods around us. “When the lower-class groups have trouble getting fresh blood for mating, they sometimes trade women. If the women give them trouble, they break them.”
I clenched my fist. “Should we free her?”
Blue shook her head. “That’s not what we’re here for.”
My gaze darted back to the bear. “We can’t just leave her like that.”
“She would probably maul you to death. I can fly to safety, but you—”
“I can flash.”
Blue pivoted toward me and folded her arms. “Then what? We’ll lose our chance of getting information, and on top of that, we’ll have bears hunting us down. This goes on more than you think. Freeing her won’t stop them from doing it again, and they’ll just find some other woman to replace her.”
“So you can just… walk away?”
She glanced over her shoulder at the bear. “Let’s get what we came here for. The leader isn’t the one meeting us, is he?”
“No. Some guy named Ferro. Father of one of the victims on our list. He died eleven months ago. Age twenty-one.”
We both turned at the sound of footsteps approaching from the left. Breaching a thicket of trees, a rugged-looking man approached us. His hair was black and shorn close to his head, his eyes dark and mysterious, and his chest hair covered him like a thin vest.
“Which one of you is Raven?” he asked, coming to an eventual stop.
I squared my shoulders, putting on an air of authority. “That would be me.”
“I’m Ferro. Frank said you wanted to talk about my son. We don’t have to report deaths to you. We’re out of territory limits.”
“I know. That’s not why we’re here.” I waved my hand at a mosquito whirring in front of my face. “The higher authority is looking to see what they can do for Shifters in the area. They want to make amends after that fiasco with the fighting rings.”
“I heard about that,” he said flatly, as if the idea of cage fights didn’t bother him.
“They’re looking at recent deaths in the past year—anything that falls out of the norm of old age.”
His brows furrowed. “Why?”
“In case there’s something they can do to help.”
Blue stepped forward. “That might mean making Relics available to everyone and not just those who can afford them. Or ensuring packs have basic medical supplies. Possibly offering advice on territorial disputes, but that’s not one I can promise anything on. They want to look over the data first and then decide where to extend their resources. I’m sure your leader does the best he can, but we both know how some groups are favored over others.”
Ferro’s mouth twisted, and his eyebrows arched in a manner that suggested he agreed with her statement.
“I’m sorry to hear about your son,” I began. “Twenty-one is just a baby.”
Ferro rubbed the side of his nose, and I wondered if he might break down crying. But he didn’t. He held it together as best a grieving father could.
Losing a kid at any age must be tough, so I tried to be as sensitive as possible. “What can you tell us about him?”
Ferro heaved a sigh. “Rain was my firstborn. Strong like me but kind like his mother. He had the right temperament.”
“For what?” I asked, uncertain of the implied meaning.
“Rain was an alpha bear. He could have led this group or started his own.”
“Can I ask about his death? I know it’s hard, but it might help.”
“Bike accident five miles up the road.” He glanced toward the front of the cabin.
“But you don’t believe that,” Blue suggested. “Parents have a sixth sense. What’s yours telling you?”
Ferro folded his arms, his dark eyebrows drawing together. “Rain’s been riding a bike since he could walk. If it wasn’t a dirt bike around the property, it was on the back of my ride. Well, the front. He always wanted to steer,” Ferro said with a wistful smile. “It was perfect riding weather that day. They found him in the middle of the road.”